Jyoshish and Synesuush got to echo their editor again, who told them where they could find a Humanologist, some Fernian drop out on a hab-satellite.

We then went over to the hab-satellite in question, only to discover that the Humanologist was being watched by agent from the Creator's Cult!

Then Captain Rerrgaat and Kw'mil got into a big old gun fight with [Battle-Monks]. The monks ran off much to Rerrgaat's disappointment. Then a large [mechanized loader] busted into the cargo bay, shouting about the Creator.

And that's where today's story beings!

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Hey guys, finally got better, will post what little I managed to write over the last few days before you have to back to waiting 20-40 minutes an update.

The loader swung its arm into a pile of crates. The [fungal wood] of the containers was selected for portability, not durability. The crates splintered open, and [pepper spores] bursting forth, filling the hanger with a fine mist. Rerrgaat [spluttered], his sonar stalks secreting protective slime, obscuring his [vision].

{Drat it all Kw’mil! How am I supposed to make the one in a million shot into the chink in the armor surrounding the hydrogen tanks, blasting the loader into scrap with all of these [pepper spores] up in my [face]?}

{Captain,} flashed Kw’mil {even if hydrogen tanks DIDN’T come with safety valves to prevent that exact event, the explosion would probably blast the hanger open to the vacuum of space.}

{[Tch!] Even the very forces of Reality desire to stand in Captain Rerrgaat’s path!}

As Kw’mil echoed around for sturdier cover she wondered if her Captain’s personality couldn’t be medicated. With fragmar tranquilizers, for example. {Ah. Captain. Perhaps this [shipping container] could serve us while you consider where else you can one-in-a-million shoot the loader.}

Captain Rerrgaat poked his sonar stalks around the croner of the [shipping container] just in time to echo the loader blundering out of the cloud of [pepper spores], the Klagracht in the cockpit distressed by the substandard environment seals. Despite being outside of the cloud now, the klagracht was still obscured by [pepper spores] floating in the cockpit. The distressed klagracht began firing the plasma welders at random, obliterating shipping crates and nastily scorching several pleasure crafts.

Rerrgaat withdrew his sonar stalks in horror. {Kw’mil! We must put a stop to that cretin before he reaches the Sly Jiggle!}

{Captain,} Kw’mil flashed reassuringly {the Sly Jiggle’s hull is rated to withstand much more heat than a mere plasma welder can generate. The void-ship will be fine.}

{No no no!} strobed Rerrgaat indignantly {that damned welder will peel the undercoat right off the Jiggle! I need that under coat uniformly distributed across the Jiggle before I can even think about applying the new pirate paint job! And that fool klagracht will ruin it!}

Kw’mil was about to rub her forearms together, but stopped herself. Last thing she wanted was forearm [chaffing]. Again. While the Captain worried himself over the undercoat of the Sly Jiggle Kw’mil contemplated what would happen if the blundering loader accidently managed to uncover them. At the moment, it was stumbling through the wreckage of a [boutique] shipment.

{FACE THE CREATOR’S [cough] FLAME [hacking cough] INFIDELS!} the loader blared as it torched two mannequins.

Kw’mil echoed at her two laser pistols. If only she could get back to the Sly Jiggle, she could re-equip with something slightly more potent. Most unfortunately the loader was directly in the way, smashing up some more mannequins that were knocked clear from the [boutique] shipment.

{I AM AN AGENT [cough] OF THE CREATOR INFIDELS!} the loader blared with obvious relish. Kw’mil didn’t want to admit it to herself, but the [pepper spores] inside the cockpit seemed to be dissipating, if the rapidly diminishing number of strangled [choking flashes] were anything to go by. Kw’mil considered her remaining options. Telling the crew of the Sly Jiggle to fire its point defense lasers on the loader was an option, although not a good one. The lasers would probably blast a hole straight through the hab-satellite at best. At worst they wouldn’t and the Sly Jiggle would get slapped with another citation for weapons discharge. If only she could access the armory, Kw’mil thought to herself.

There was a hissing [sound] and Kw’mil turned to echo the airlock of the Sly Jiggle opening, steam pouring out from the opening. The loader noticed too. {SO ANOTHER HEATHEN HAS COME TO FACE THE CREATOR’S JUDGEMENT!}

A bolt of plasma issued forth from the steam as Raggarrz sidled out, bearing a plasma caster. The bolt struck true, reducing much of the loader into slag. The large mech collapsed onto the station floor, plasma welders powering off with an almost dejected sputter.

{Son,} flashed Raggarrz, {if you’re the guy the Creator sent to judge me, your [god] has some major staffing issues.}

Kw’mil, Raggarrz, and the Captain moved about the armory, selecting weaponry from the Captain’s extensive collection. While Rerrgaat dithered over which body armor would go best with his vest Kw’mil walked up to Raggarrz. {Where on [Earth] did a bureaucrat like you learn how to operate a plasma caster?}

{Haven’t always been a [pencil pusher]} Raggarrz flashed back {at one point I was [senior morale/duty exemplar officer] attached to the 7th marine battalion. Got pretty damned comfortable with a plasma caster back then. Best way to clear a void-ship’s corridor, let me flash you.}

Kw’mil’s photo frills waved in agreement {The plasma caster is nice.} Kw’mil lifted up a beam rifle, an elegant and thin weapon quite in contrast to the stout Korok’x {By far and away my favorite device for void-ship combat is this. Beam weapons might not have much penetrative power, but that’s hardly a bad thing when all that’s between you and the vacuum of space are some aluminum walls. Besides, it shoots fast and the power pack hardly ever runs out.}

>>27368812Oh yeah quick Author's Note to anyone who's reading this. [senior morale/duty exemplar officer] is a bitch and a half to type. So I'm gonna stick with sergeant from now on. No a perfect analogue but close enough

Raggarrz slithered forward quickly, hardly believing his sonar stalks. He plucked up a Gearmat mk II Multi-Barreled Laser Pistol, holding it reverently. {I thought the Union melted all of these bad boys down…} he flashed nostalgically, {look at the rotator mechanism. It looks fresh off of the manufacturing line.}

Kw’mill scuttled up, her photo frills waving kindly {The Union hardly ever does anything to completion. We bought a whole supply shipment worth of these things when the Union began to switch over to the mk III Single Barreled. We ended up keeping a third of them, best side arm in the Union.}

{You’re damned right it is.} twinkled Raggarrz {Saddest day of my career, giving my old girl up for re-processing. The mk III doesn’t even deserve the title. The focusing crystal was flawed half the time anyway. Couldn’t get even a tenth of the advertised power out of the mk IIIs. We ended up using them to cook fragmar steaks [rare].}{If you old axes are done reminiscing about shooting people,} flashed the Captain from behind the pair of aliens {we have some Cultists begging to visit the Creator. And a Humanologist to save. As dull as that sounds.}

The three aliens [strutted] out of the Sly Jiggle’s airlock. They wore an impressive selection of body armors and bore an even more impressive selection of weapons. Raggarrz an almost exact replica of his old military gear, from plasma caster to mk II pistol to combat vest, much to his immense pleasure. Kw’mil cam similarly well equipped, bearing a beam rifle in addition to her two laser pistols. Captain Rerrgaat carried a laser rifle and pistols, and behind him trundled a Korok’x deckhand, bearing a plasma [shotgun], another set of body armor in slightly different cut than Rerrgaat’s current one, and several helmets with differing vibropaint jobs. Raggarrz was going to question the Captain on the necessity of so much gear but Kw’mil stopped him, [shaking her head] resignedly.

Jyohsish and Syensuush had retreated into the Sly Jiggle, where they would help coordinate the fire team through the hab-sattellite. The recent fire fight had convinced the two Sillyesh that they might be out of their collective depths on this particular retrieval mission.

{Okay, be careful your four,} flashed Syensuush into the team’s helmets. {Sensors indicate a variety of thermal signatures behind the door. Most likely some more [Battle-Monks], trying to hand out express tickets to the Creator.}

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Anyone else ITT? Or did /tg/ forget about the beloved Captain Rerrgaat so soon?

The fire team fell behind cover as Raggarrz opened the door. A cascade of laser fire poured out of the entrance, ruining yet another pleasure craft’s vibropaint job. Raggarrz activated a [thermal grenade] and rolled it down the hallway. Flashes of panicked cursing were followed by a [deafening] burst of light. Raggarrz gestured the team forward, wondering why the grenade burst had [sounded] so much like {[Christmas] came early [Douchebag]}. Judging from the pleased wriggling of one Captain, Raggarrz didn’t wonder who might’ve been responsible.

The fire team moved forward, gingerly avoiding the scorched remnants of the [Battle-Monks]. They proceeded down the corridor without incident. {Alright good job killing those mislead fanatics you guys,} flashed Syensuush {Obviously your [kindergarten] instructor failed to impress peaceful conflict resolution methods onto you guys. Jyoshish has just informed me that we have just gained access to the station’s data network. According to it, Lylnia was last detected entering the station’s [greenspace]. So keep on heading forward until I tell you to turn left.}

{I didn’t realize that you reporters had data deciphering abilities,} flashed Kw’mil {because I know no one on the Sly Jiggle has the skillset to do it. Very impressive.}

{Yes. Impressive. It was our incredible skills as master [hackers] that got us into the data network.} flashed Syensuush {and definitely not the fact that the password was “Guest”.}

The fire team moved forward, Raggarrz taking point, checking each intersection for potential hostiles before gesturing the rest of the team forward. The team moved towards the [greenspace] at crawl, with the Captain growing more and more agitated. By the time they had come upon the entrance to the [greenspace] Rerrgaat was practically undulating with suppressed energy. {Alright team,} flashed Raggarrz {take cover while I-}

{My apologies friend Raggarrz,} flashed Rerrgaat as he surged forward to the door controls {I am afraid that all of this waiting has grown quite intolerable.} The Captain hammered on the open key.

>>27370253well we've only met 5 of the seven Union species. I figure I'll leave it that way, so that if you guys ever wanted to use the setting (I can dream can't I?) you could insert your own species in those last two slots.

The door slid open. Sister Qw’krak violently depressed the trigger of her laser pistol, as did the remaining [Battle-Monks] around her. The group quickly focused fire on the lone gizmat [standing] in the entryway, singing a hymn of war as they directed shot after shot into the figure before them. After several [minutes] of concentrated pistol fire the monks ceased firing. Impossibly the gizmat still stood before them, with nary a scorch mark on his corpulent form. Some of the other monks backed away involuntarily, but not sister Qw’krak. Her faith in the Creator was strong, and it made her strong too. She stood her ground against the heathen and strobed {You are nothing infidel! The Creator shields me far more than your dark gods ever could!}

The gizmati turned towards her and leered, pulling out a massive plasma [shotgun]. The last thing sister Qw’krak noticed, before plasma obliterated much of her midsection, was how much the bolt of superheated matter [sounded] like {[Fuck] you!}

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Quick list of all the species we've met thus far:

*Sillyesh- Jyoshish, Syensuush, and Vyinsaash. They have manes, tails, fangs, and tongues, which are alse their primary means of communication*Gizmat- Captain Rergaat, Raggarrz. Large slug like creatures. Similar to the OP pic*Korok'x- Kw'mil. Have photo-frills mandibles, more than one set of arms terminating in claws, and a shell.

>>27370649*Klagracht- no major characters. Not described in any detail. They flash at a much higher frequency than most species. Some Sillyesh, Jyoshish for example, can [hear] these flashes though. They [sound] painfully shrill to them.

*Fernian- Lylnia (duh she was gonna be a major character). They have something similar to human hair that can pulled back into a ponytail

>>27370834Music would just look like weird blurry miasmas of light. Cities would look and sound like constant babbling at a deafening volume and brightness I suppose. Poor slugs. No wonder none of them want to study humans.

Kw’mil could not believe how lax she had been. Nothing else could explain how the Captain’s favorite [shotgun], and half of the other weapons in the armory from the echoes of it, were blasting out profanity. Somehow the gizmat had managed to access the armory, and even more disturbingly, had messed around with their frequency settings. She was going to have to reset all of them to factory standard settings, she didn’t want a laser rifle to go off in her claws one day just because the Captain wanted it to blare {Eat this [fuckknuckle]!} That would not be a death her broodmother would be proud of. Or her for that matter. Kw’mil continued to [grumble] to herself as she sniped monks fleeing their grossly insufficient cover.

Raggarrz continued to pound away with his plasma caster, obliterating foliage and the monks behind it. The survivors didn’t last long before Kw’mil plucked the off with her beam rifle. Raggarrz was startled by the martial skill that the two likely smugglers displayed. Even Rerrgaat displayed shocking proficiency with his plasma [shotgun], which he was employing to great effect, eliminating cultists too well entrenched for the plasma caster to blast them out. Why, they might even be able to contend with his old squad, and they were the elite of the 7th Marine Battalion. {What sort of traders are you?} Ragarrz flashed softly to himself.

Brother Michlu and sister R’brin could not believe what their [abbot] was telling them. {Yes truly my [children], the soldiers of the Creator were unable to stop the infidels. Already they are moving towards the dissolute Humanologist. You are our last hope to prevent their victory today.}

Brother Michlu gritted his teeth and pressed his sonar-eye against the scope of his rifle once more. His fool compatriots spent more time praying to the Creator for victory rather than actually training to ensure that they could seize victory for the Creator. Clearly the new recruits weren’t familiar with the basic laws of causality. Borther Michlu glanced over to sister R’brin, and found the monk blinking a prayer. {Tssst! Stop your praying! It’s distracting and you might give away our position!} he blinked harshly.

R’brin’s photo-frills sagged even further {my apologies brother Michlu.} she blinked softly {but these infidels are clearly aided by the Great Enemy. I thought it prudent to request the Creator’s grace.}

{The only thing that’s been aiding these infidels is our own incompetence,} spat Brother Michlu {If you all spent less time on the [pews] and more time in the firing range the infidels would’ve been dead long ago! But no, it falls upon me, the one [person] in the whole monastery who actually trained for the thing we’re supposedly specialists in, to save the day! There are plenty of other orders who are trained to pray, trained to write reflections on the Creator’s books, but only one designed to bring the Creator’s holy wrath to his ene-} A massive blast of plasma brought Brother Michlu to a startling conclusion.

{You see!} blared Kw’mil, more out of anger than surprise, {You see Captain! This is exactly why we don’t modulate weapon frequencies to blast out profanity!} She snatched the plasma [shotgun] out from the startled Captain’s manipulators. The [shotgun]’s helium tank and power pack completely depleted by the incredible discharge. {Thank goodness you weren’t pointing that thing at anyone! Even our armor couldn’t have guarded against that!}

The Captain turned to face the fire team, Kw’mils mandibles clicking furiously, a stunned Raggarrz with the wonked out Humanologist on his back, and the Korok’x deckhand, echoing nervously at the laser rifle in her claws. {That… that was incredible my friends!} blared Rerrgaat triumphantly {When I recalibrated the weapon frequencies to fun I was worried that I’d reduce power output or something! Instead the Gods have smiled upon this simple Captain and blessed me with the single most overpowered [shotgun] in the Union!}

The fire team moved back to the Sly Jiggle, three of them warily glancing at the weapons they carried, despite removing the power packs. The fire team didn’t run into any more cultists on their return route, having unknowingly obliterated the last two when the Captain’s plasma [shotgun] discharged. They scurried aboard the Sly Jiggle, unwilling to linger in case the hab-satellite authorities decided to play [twenty questions] with them about the massive number of homicides that just occurred across the hab-satellite.

Jyoshish and Syensuush stood inside the Captain’s Quarters once more, surrounded by a heavily armed bureaucrat, an already drunken Captain, and a censorious looking Executive Assistant. {We were able to find the Humanologist.} flashed Kw’mil curtly. {Most unfortunately she was unable to communicate with us.}

{What do you mean by that?} flashed Jyoshish, worried

{Well, she was capable of speaking,} responded Raggarrz {but she seemed quite convinced we were all flashing chairs. Well, not the Captain. He was a [sofa].}

{What.} flashed Syensuush.

{We believe she may have ingested a large amount of psychotropics. More specifically refined oil of the vilmix flower. That’s the most likely explanation our medic could come up with based on available evidence.} answered Kw’mil.

{We are not pleased by this result either.} flashed Kw’mil crossly {but we were not aware of her proclivities when we retrieved her from the hab-satellite. And we were all rather hopeful her strange behavior was due to some sort of cultist drugging, but why just leave her [high]? Vilmix oil can be fatal at certain doses. No, she definitely did it to herself.}

The Captain flashed for the first time since entering his quarters {I mean, what could being a [sofa] mean… I am sturdy, yet also comforting?}

{Let’s agree to that interpretation.} Kw’mil flashed resignedly.

{Ah. Aaahhhhh! Yes of course of course that’s what she meant!} flashed the Captain, rapidly regaining his stride, {I mean what else could it be? I am undoubtedly a soothing presence here, she probably thought of me as such after we nobly rescued her from the clutches of those fanatical cultists!}

{Moving on.} flashed Kw’mil, turning back to Jyoshish and Syensuush {you can inform the Humanologist of our plans once she has returned to our mortal plane. I am much too tired to deal with her right now.}

Kw’mil skittered out of the room, followed by Raggarrz, leaving the two Sillyesh with their rapidly deteriorating Captain. {I’ll… I’ll flash you what…} the Captain struggled out {…I. I only have one regret today.}

{[Blind} luck!} spat [High Cleric] Xytomon {I want you to declare a Holy Writ within the Chapters of the Creator’s Blade. I want every single member of our militant wing on alert in case this Sly Jiggle passes through their system. We cannot allow these interlopers to disrupt our plans. Fear of the Humans has put the Creator’s Work Party in position to seize a majority of the seats in the [Triet] for the first time in Union history. If we can keep this up the Chancellorship is as good as ours. Imagine, the entirety of the Union, united in the Creator’s work.}

{Truly, it is a glorious notion.} flashed Brother-Superior Mven.

{Indeed. And to ensure no more mistakes are made I want you to deploy the [Templars].}

Lylnia awoke with a dusty taste in her mouth, and her vision rather fuzzy. Based on the sterile [colorsound] of the room, and the incessant beeping of vibralights around her, Lylnia inferred that she was in a med-bay. Again. For a hab-satellite that advertised itself as a [libertarian] free-for-all Lylnia was quite disappointed with the Firaxis station. They lacked any sort of real [hard-drug] underground, and all the residents were constantly monitored by the station datanet to ensure no one got into too much trouble. So Firaxis station was more like a rich [kid]’s watered down and safety padded version of an actual hard [streets], hard drugs, hard people ghetto. Took her a few [weeks] to realize it though. Lylnia blamed all the barbiturates she was consuming. By the time she figured out that the station wasn’t really her [jam], the citizen’s license had passed its return date and she was stuck station-side.

The situation was sub-optimal for all parties involved. Lylnia was stuck on Firaxis until she could scrounge up enough cash to purchase a ticket off of the station. And the Firaxis Governmental Wing was stuck with a citizen who continued to rack up debts, mostly relating to overnight stays in the medical bay, with no real way of paying them off. Lylnia suspected that the only reason they didn’t fly her planet side was to maintain the illusion of a hard bitten lawless hab-satellite for the tourists. Therefore, Lylnia continued to lie on her med-berth, unwilling to rise and face whichever [doctor] was on duty, and hear how much more debt she had fallen into while asleep.

Her plan came crashing around her photo-ears when someone began to pinch her thigh rather harder than was strictly necessary. Lylnia jerked up, strobing more in surprise than anything else, the station [physicians] were usually quite gentle, unwilling to cause distress to the spoilt thrill seekers who normally came into the med bay.

{I [told] you she was awake Captain.} flashed a Korok’x next to her berth. Lylnia echoed around blearily, and found, to her surprise, that she was not in the Firaxis med bay, but a much smaller, and less well appointed, one. The Korok’x standing in front of her was definitely not one of Firaxis’ medical personnel. {Where, where am I?} she flashed dully.

Very suddenly a large gizmat in semi-military regalia squelched up next to Lylnia, and seized her hand in its manipulator. Slime dribbled from its body over the stricken Fernian. {Greetings my dear! We were so very concerned for your well-being, after rescuing you from the foul depredations of those Creator cultists! Truly it is good to echo that you have made a complete recovery!}

Lylnia attempted to rub the slime off of herself to little effect, only managing to spread the ooze over her hands and the rest of her torso. {Who are you [people]? What is going on? Where am I? What cultists?}

The Korok’x stepped forward, pushing the dribbling gizmat away from Lylnia. {I am Kw’mil, Executive Assistant to Captain Rerrgaat, the gizmat who was oozing upon you previously. You are aboard the Sly Jiggle, and we are currently jumping away from the Firaxis system, on route to the system Syinvish. We recovered you in an intoxicated state from the Firaxis hab-satellite’s [greenspace]. Our attempts to retrieve you were complicated by [Battle-Monks] from the Creator’s Cult.}

{An excellent question, my academic friend!} strobed the apparent Captain {We, the noble crew of the Sly Jiggle and some associated media personalities, have been assigned a grand and righteous quest to determine the very future of the Union! We are currently the last hope for a Union free from the oppression of the Creator’s Cult!}

{That all seems very exciting,} flashed Lylnia, wondering if the vilmix oil was still circulating in her bloodstream {But why would I be involved in something so… epic in nature? I’m a [druggie] with a penchant for vilmix oil. I hardly seem like the type, you know?}

Kw’mil clicked her mandibles agitatedly {Surely, you’re aware of the recent climate of fear in the Union?}

{If by climate of fear,} responded Lylnia {you mean a bunch of rich [young adults who retain the personality of a juvenile] worrying about whether or not they’ll be busted for smoking jilken leaves by the “Firaxis Security Force” than yes, yes I do.}

{I was more thinking about the religious extremists trying to declare a [crusade] on the Humans.} Kw’mil flashed back.

{The Humans?} flashed Lylnia, a frown appearing on her brow, {I hope you guys didn’t just snatch me up in order to try to communicate with them or something. Not really my [jam] anymore.}

{How unfortunate. It seems like you are going to have make it your [jam] once more.} flashed Kw’mil {as every other Humanologist in the Union has seemingly disappeared from public life, you’re currently the best thing we have left.}

Lylnia [bit back] a rising tide of fury as she contemplated the two aliens before her {This is totally illegal though! There are laws in the Union that you’re breaking right now! Like with serious consequences!}

Kw’mil scuttled towards the med bay doors, turning around to flash at the shocked Fernian {Trust me, if we were ever apprehended by Union authorities, abduction would be the least of the charges.}

As the korok’x exited through the door way, Captain Raggarrz turned to face Lylnia {Oh, don’t listen to my Executive Assistant, she’s merely exaggerating. If we were caught I’m pretty sure the least serious chargse would be a few outstanding illegal docking tickets.} The Captain also began to slither out of the med bay, before flashing {Feel free to have your run of the Sly Jiggle though! I certainly don’t want to come off as an ungracious host, so flash the word and I’ll give you a full slitherdown on the void-ship, a captain’s personal tour!}

This whole talk about plasma and laser weapons got me thinking about certain aspects of technology.

Considering Humans still use guns (i would prefer not rail and Gauss guns for personal use at least) and the high performance of materail sciences allows me to extrapolate a few things.

The aliens most likely eclipse humans by a large margin in power storage and power transmission considering viable laser weapons. And the ubiquity of plasma weapons and lower quality of hulls means that they most likely make up with force fields and such, a area in which they again most likely eclipse humans.

On the other hand considering hulls and guns it means that humans have better material sciences, meaning better hulls and larger engineering scale, and probably to offset their lack of such ubiquitous power transmission and storage a more powerful power generation, probably single use or very tasc specific, like the explosives in shells, warheads, the antimatter used probably only for sub light torch propulsion etc.

Thus considering missiles and disposable thinking its more likely that humans make far far more usage of drones than the aliens, but the aliens most likely have more sophisticated sensors and probably some kind of force fields to remote manipulate stuff.

>>27388368no force feilds, the aliens use point defence lasers vs space debree. If you read through the archived threads posted in OP you will see that all the aliens come from low (by our standards) gravity planets, with limited access to heavier materials. What humans consider civilian grade hulls are at or beyond mil-spec for the union. There was even an anidote of a pirate running out of fuel while trying to cut into the hull of a human ship for boarding, and needed said ship to tow them back.

>>27388368Your assumptions are surprisingly close to my own mental background for the story. High mass human worlds mean the humans gained access to fission and fusion technology long before the Union due to the abundance of heavy fissile materials on Earth. Prior to meeting the humans, Union void-ships transversed space using super massive and efficient batteries to power ion thrusters and the warp array, supplemented by solar sails and other power generation systems that employ ambient space gases.

There was limited technological exchange between the Union and Humans prior to the Non-Interaction Pact. One of the tings they exchanged was the Union's hyper-efficient battery designs and the a Human fusion/fission power plant. Although very inefficient by Human standards, the fusion/fission plant shared with the Union uses helium 3 as the primary fuel, which is present in gas giants and accessible to the gravity intolerant Union species.

This is part of the reason why the Sly Jiggle has so much trouble fueling up. There is limited infrastructure to support a Helium 3 powered vessel, and much of it is dedicated to military applications.

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Honestly not sure what I'm gonna write next in the story, would you guys mind too much if I did some world building for a while?

Although realistically yes, human railguns would fuck up a Union void-ship. Due to the massive amount kinetic energy needed to penetrate a Human void-ship's hull, Human railguns would easily blast through the flimsier Union hulls.

However, Union void-ships are far more maneuverable than their Human equivalents, making actually hitting a Union ship quite the challenge in a hypothetical space battle

>>27388943Humans are a militaristic bunch, it could be that the aliens are better at non combat related design, or have a different approach to warfare than the humans apparent biggest guns and heaviest armor policy.One book series had humans crap at almost everything but fighting, and while their military equipment came from a lower technology base it was almost as good due to being far more practical and designed from experience rather than theory.

So basically the Union consists of several Hundred inhabited systems, all of which are registered with the Union's primary governing body, the Tiret. The Triet consists of three houses:

The [Council]: Each species sends one representative, the most powerful house in the Triet

The [Assembly]: Each system sends a number of representatives based on population.

The [Lobby]: The [Lobby] is unique in the [Triet]. There are 50,000 'shares' that are purchased each election cycle, and any entity can purchase one (or more). These shares are equivalent to one vote. The [Lobby] is usually responsible for implementing Union wide restrictions on trade. Due to the decidedly corporate make-up of the [Lobby] this has resulted in extremely lax interstellar trade laws, all of which can be opted into or out of by individual systems.

At the Head of the Union is the Chancellorship, who has the ability to declare edicts unilaterally. These edicts function like laws, but can be struck down at any time by any one house of the [Triet]. Outside of that the Chancellorship has a mandate to protect the Union, and is in command of the Military fleets and the police fleets. Whenever a chancellor wants to abuse their authority they often use their mandate to protect the Union, rather than their ability to decree edicts, which can be quickly struck down.

The Union's military fleet is generally in drydock, serving no purpose due to a lack of external hostile forces. The pirate threat was officially destroyed, and unofficially contained to small raiding actions, and Humans have proven thus far to beneutral, if inscrutable.

The policing fleet on the other hand, is infinitely more active, keeping order in the Union. The officers of the policing fleet can find themselves in a variety of uncomfortable situations, from hunting down raiders to shutting down illegal mining operations. The Police Marines are generally idolized by their much more lax military brothers. In the event of war the Police forces will probably be the ones engaged in front line fighting until the Union's war fleets can rouse themselves.

>>27388597That point defense must be augmented by some kind of force fields. Even if they have lasers that simply melt and vaporize micrometeorites the momentum of that mass will impact the hull so unless it is able to hold up to it and perhaps regenerate or be changed out periodically, as in probably a full exchange every full mission month (orbiting in the shadow or envelope of a harbor analogue does not count)

Well on humans might I suggest to not unify them. Still in nation states and similar blocks, while the aliens are all unified despite species.

Kind of like the aliens from 3rd rock from the sun. They cant really make the difference between nationalities at least. Races would simply perpetually say the same word or emotion.

This again would mean that most systems and planets are colonized and factionalized. Not to the degree of Earth, but similar, making a certain degree of constant mobilization a necessary fact. This again means that most combat assets are planetary and transorbital, with few military vessels beyond rapid reaction forces needing the expensive upgrade of a FTL drive, most likely using FTL carriers/locomotive/trailer/tug/whatever as a constant train between systems. Far more economic.

This makes the need for a Humanologyst a absolute must if you want to treat with them on a official level - in a unofficial level however both of them are limited to personal level at best due to the limitations of both.

Going back on the point of technology, even if there was some exchange the institutional inertia means that past that certain point there would be little advancement compared to the other side. The Union still struggles to set up the He3 infrastructure, but probably cheats a bit with wireless energy transfer or some such.

While the humans now have batteries probably slightly better and a bit more specialized for whatever they are needed than they received prior to the Non interaction situation.

>>27389528>Even if they have lasers that simply melt and vaporize micrometeorites the momentum of that mass will impact the hullWouldn't the act of vaporization impart enough energy that the formerly solid micrometeorites would go off in a different direction from before, counteracting the momentum?

Cont.Now more on infrastructure, military and perceived culture shock from my pov.

First, culture.

The Aliens are Kind of a US /EU federation combination that seems to have lived in a void towards other formation in the aftermath of their formation, at least officially and publicly. Which makes the Humans such a central point, and why Humanologists represent such a commodity.

If we go by my suggestion of a humanity still divided in nation states that folows the most practical and politically convenient interstellar expansion , meaning mostly multistate systems and planets, it makes the shock for both of the sides that much more prevalent. One expecting large differences in jurisdiction and manner for each new alien, while the other expecting uniformity only to find differences dividing them into a miriad of sides claimed by a kind they cant tell apart.

On infrastructure i expect that a larger degree of high power management and similar fields means that FTL is far more economic for the Union, while the humans are more likely to industrialize the hell out of a system or outpost they take hold of, regardless if it is or not premanetly liked to the human sphere via a constant FTL transit line.

>>27389462And from this i get that my supposition about FTL at least for the aliens is at least partly true.

Now regarding military, that would have been something i would have said, with the police being replaced by a coast guard or something similar.

Now if we go with humans divided we get something wildly different. We get a disproportionately large military per capita in comparison to the Union, Most on planet and in trans orbital positions, with a smaller contingent of reaction forces, but the reaction forces are all military, meaning heavily armed and probably highly experienced for each nation state or faction that can afford them.The police is most likely restricted to border checks and internal duty inside their orbits or habs.

>>27389744expanding on this means that humans will never privately own a FTL ship, barring extreme outliners, like Bill Gates buying a decommissioned warship, or that guy that drives a yellow tank in london.

Simply due to cost means that FTL transit in human sphere is controlled by governments and mega corporations only and attempting piracy inside human space is tantamount to suicide, except a few sweetspots created by geography and internal human policy, where it is done most likely via something akin to shuttles, that jump on their pray when it transits some noncolonized system that is not all that highly monitorized or stationed full of guntoating ships - most likely meaning no planetary colony or large orbital complexes.

On the economic side of the Union i see something highly akin to guilds clashing with human unions and corporations. Although that may be only my supposition from the contract inheritance issue on our hero ship.

All these points make for me a potential great stories, weather my assumptions be confirmed or denied and how these social conflicts will be resolved.

Aside from official Union forces, many systems have their own contributions to security, which can range from fleets almost as well armed as the Military, to one dinky capsule with a fat gizmat at the center, eating doughnut analogues. These forces take responsibility for enforcing whatever rules are unique to the system's government, and are generally left to handle any threats that are unique to their home system, although there is no shame in smaller colonies requesting external aid. These forces are not inconsiderable. While the formation of the Union officially disbanded each of the seven species individual militaries, most of their systems founded prior to the Union still act as one entity, hosting abnormally large 'security fleets' and planets generally adhere to the will of the Home world. These shadow governments can vary widely and are not inconsiderable in power themselves.

Outside of systems security, most other forces are either the remnants of the old Corsair Clans and corporate raiders/security forces. Corporations in the Union are difficult to control, especially when they grow to the point of being a multistellar entity, existing in a legal limbo, where they can exploit the limited jurisdiction of the various Union governments and branches.

>>27389929That depends a lot on the internal policies of humans. You can have the Union unknowingly attack a colony that has a ally of every major power block, making thus a full mobilization of the human sphere against the union very probable.

Then again the constant arms race between humans makes it quite probable that a very militarized human planet can hold out for a very long time, enough for the politics to kick in.

This here makes it interesting. Humans most likely never act with the full weight of their kind, while a political entity of the Union can claim to do so, and then it is up to their centralized government to agree or disagree.

This makes Humanologists indispensable for the Union. It is quite probable that if there is a war picking a target like, say Earth Mk2 where everyone has a city or a hab... means very bad things are going to happen, and a very long protracted warfare.

Because as I see it alien warfare was highly FTL centric, even if FTL is only present in logistics. Human warfare on the other hand, after interstellar expansion was more orbital centric sometimes getting into trans orbital and sometimes if ever into full FTL dependent warfare.

This makes humans more likely to be highly potent in defensive operations, reinforcements, relief and special ops.

While the Union is more adept at massive intervention, although it seems their moral and training is lacking and large scale frontier patrol and search and destroy in a very wide area.

If that is so than the various home worlds most likely monopolized the Humanologists, recognizing the Human divisions something akin to pre Union Seven Species, or something similar in their history.

Making humans at least culturally seem very eccentric or primitive.

However while the various species have their homeworld as HQ of their nonofficial shadow governement, Earth is probably as much a unifying force as the Union, by simply existing and having probably all if not the vast majority of human capitals focused on one point. The difference being that one has a official super government and unofficial smaller ones, while the inverse is true for Humans.

I just wait for a gizmat to slap a post-it with black or russian scribbled on someones chest.Or the analogue of a post-it

>>27390089I still don't see how 1 disunited race could hold out against a dozen united races.They would not have a standardized command structure, equipment, logistics or doctrine, as well as differing political goals and priorities.

Maybe independent states with their own "militia" forces, but backed up by a central human government and military, like the Systems alliance in mass effect.

>>27390246Said disunited race is most likely massively more militarized than the others, and major military forces like say the analogue of US, Russia, China probably equal each with the military of another species. Simply by dint of constant politics.

And considering the Non interference pact, the human UN or whatever it is called probably has standardized command and logistics protocols.

Also considering said disunited race probably has turned every system into a fortress by the standards of the union, while the humans consider it only sane border and asset protection.

In many ways, there would be no Union without the Creator's Cult. Prior to the Great Meeting, a period of time when the individual governments of the Seven Species met one another, the Species all followed a variety of faith systems, from the various forms of ancestor worship practiced by the Korok'x, to the monolithic Church of Myulesh that the Sillyesh ascribed to. Very few of these religions lasted long after the Great Meeting, the implications of alien life and a general move to secularism across the Seven Species crippling the old Religions.

The Creator's Cult arose from the spiritual fallout following the collapse of the Old Religions. Endorsing the virtues of exploration, integration, and progress, the Creator's Cult appealed across racial divides and rapidly gained a following among all of the Seven Species. At the its height almost 50% of all sapients in the territories that would later make up the Union followed the doctrines of the Creator.

Almost 97% of the soldiers raised to fight the Pirate menace in the Grand Alliance were Creator's Cultists. The leaders who would then go on to sign the Oath of Unity were to a one Creator's Cultists. This was the height of the Creator's Cult.

From then on, the Cult slowly declined in importance. Although nearly 20% of all Unionists still identify as Creator's Cultists they are widely dispersed, and don't form any sort of power blocks that the Cult can use to further their agenda. In the words of Grand Cleric Mkan:

{We created our killer, by bringing an end to the great adversity the people have forgotten why they need us. Our ultimate success has also been our ultimate downfall.}

>>27390337It depends on how standardized they were. Much of NATO was a clusterfuck during the cold war due to national politicking. If the pact had ever invaded, the more multinational NorthAG would have been far less effective than the US based CentAG, simply from disunity.

>>27390411Indeed. But i think the fractured nature implies heavily fortified orbits full of battlelites, killsats, hidden milsats, asats, and a lot of other nastiness for ships, let alone anything that tires to land. Taking a planet from humans would be heavily disproportionate to what the Union would expect.

They expect blitzkrieg when every city is basically Lenningrad or Verdun.

The Humans are so far the only species that the Seven Species of the Union have encountered since the Great Meeting. The Humans first appeared around the Union southwest, travelling in their slow, bulky void-ships. Attempts to communicate were impeded by the greatly differing methods of communication employed by the Humans and the Union. The Fernian xeno-linguist Calcean Starris made quite a celebrity of himself when he cracked the mystery of Human communications. There was a brief period of trade following this, when the Humans and the Union exchanged some minor technologies and resources, although both sides had little to offer the other, more due to their differing natures and tech bases than any gap in achievement.

Humans remain a mystery to the Union at large. Thus far only one Unionist, a Klagracht, has actually been in the presence of a Human, and the disorienting nature of their void-ship prevented him from echoing them in any great detail.

Although they registered their home world, Earth, with the Registrat they did not specify its location. They also gave the Union a rough understanding of Human planetary development patterns, but failed to inform the Union of how many other systems the Terran Domination Authority, as they referred to their government, laid claim to.

All in all most of the data compiled about the Humans is conjecture, with little basis in fact. After meeting the Humans many Union science fiction writers had a field day describing the bizarre aliens' appearance, and their distant culture. A depressing number of these fictions involved the Union beating off a Human lead invasion, making them favorite antagonists in Vibrafilms for a period of time.

I figure that the speculation, with some necessary changes, like dropping the mention of the US or NATO could very easily be a Union Political Science class discussion group after the lecture on Humans.

>>27391472>>27391503I was about to point out it could be a mistranslation myself. After all, dominion usually refers to the exercise of control or sovereignty which is something that every government, autocratic or not, does.

Outside of some disgusting fetishists attempting to turn Humans into a delivery system for their sexual deviance of choice, most citizens of the Union enjoy speculating on the military capacity of the Humans. The Union's interest in this probably stems from old vibrafilms about Human invasion, which became lodged in the Union's popular conscience. Several dozen vibradocumentaries have been made, all of them rife with speculation, about the Human's military capacity. They fall across a full spectrum, either postulating that the Humans are weak and disorganized or a mighty Galactic Empire with millions of void-ships, and many somewhere in between. The most esoteric one claimed that Humans employed vilmix oil to ascend to higher astral plane in order to obliterate their foes "from the fifth dimension".

Most serious analysts peg the Humans at being on par with the Union in terms of war making capacity. Although that's more or less due to a lack of any external point of comparison, rather than careful consideration.

Most of the Union agrees that the Non-Interaction Pact was probably a good idea. The Humans were far too much of a destabilizing element in the Union, disrupting the relatively peaceful status quo. However, every few [years] someone points out that the Union can't be sure that the Humans who signed the Pact even represented the species' main government, or if they represented any sort of authority at all. Some go further to suggest that the bulk of Humanity might not even be aware of the Union, that they might be even more in the dark about the Seven Species than they are of the Humans

Lylnia scowled to herself. The last time she had been marooned on a space borne vessel it had been by her own design. It had also been substantially larger, and with a far more varied supply of recreational chemicals than the Sly Jiggle likely had. She hopped off of the med-berth, and came quite close landing on a bucket wielding korok’x. Lylnia quickly exited the med bay, apologizing to the slighted korok’x. The doors pulled open with a reassuring whoosh, leading to a clean, well vibrated corridor. Lylnia echoed down it, suspiciously eyeing the trail of slime undoubtedly left by the Captain. She followed it, careful not to step in the puddles of ooze, and found that it terminated at an elevator. Lylnia pressed the recall button. The doors opened up to reveal a cell covered in slime. Even the walls. {Not happening,} flashed Lylnia as she turned around and began walking back down the corridor.

Lylnia eventually found a maintenance ladder further down the hall from the med bay. She descended it awkwardly, the rungs designed for the footclaws of a korok’x, not the feet of a Fernian. Eventually it terminated at what must be the bottom of the Sly Jiggle. Lylnia poked her head out and gasped at the [starsong] that struck her photo-ears. The void-ship came equipped with an auditory! Attempting to contain her glee Lylnia stepped out onto the deck of the auditory, [listening] to the [starsong].

{Sounds like Kw’mil.} flashed Jyoshish {She’s really not so bad. A bit businesslike, but that’s how all korok’x are. And she needs to be, with someone like Rerrgaat as captain. I don’t envy her for that.}

{Ah.} flashed Lylnia as she turned to hear the [starsong] more clearly. {So are we really going off to find the Humans? I can’t think of any other reason you would abduct me, unless you wanted advice on finding high quality vilmix oil.}

{Yeah, all the way to Human space} flashed Syensuush resignedly. {You want another?}

{Sure,} responded Lylnia as she continued to observe the [starsong]. The Sly Jiggle was accelerating away from the stars, turning their hue a darker tint of red. For a brief moment Lylnia thought they [sounded] quite like a song from her youth, a dirge.

[Templar] Cylion prowled across the bridge of his void-ship, the Censor, ticking his tongue in irritation. Only a [week] had passed since the [High Cleric] Xytomon had declared a Writ Odious against the Sly Jiggle and all those aboard. And for whatever reason some [white collar] in the GNN too. Thus far the [Templars] had been met with an overwhelming lack of success, the GNN editor disappeared mere minutes after the Writ was declared. [High Cleric] Xytomon was furious, suspecting a leak in the Militant Wing. Based on the Sly Jiggle’s previous movement patterns Cylion and his compatriots thought that they would catch up to the gizmati void-ship within a [day] of being deployed. The slow, meandering course, punctuated by many small jumps and frequent refueling stops had lead the pursuing [Templars] to believe that the Sly Jiggle was some dinky smuggling craft, equipped with a low-watt hydrogen power plant and an even smaller fuel tank.

Instead they were chasing a trail of hard radiation, left behind by an almost certainly illegal fusion/fission plant. However, despite the speed that the gizmati craft was travelling, the [Templar]’s void-ships still had much more powerful and modern F/F plants, and they were gaining. Denying the Creator’s will is futile in all things, the best one can hope for is a delay, a temporary reprieve. [Templar] Cylion’s two fellows were set to intercept the void-ship in a few [hours]; their smaller void-ships were less well armed and armored than his, but much faster. [Templar] Cylion might have felt resentment that his two fellows were to deny him a share in the kill, but such emotions were unsuitable for an agent of the Creator. He would make penance for them later.

{Captain,} flashed Kw’mil {We seem to have lost one of our three friends, but the other two are still gaining.}

Captain Rerrgaat hung in his command sling, in the cockpit of the combat bridge. {Will we reach the warp point before we come into range?}

{The navigator informs that is a negative Captain} answered Kw’mil.

{Such a pity, we were so close the Syinvish warp. Bring the Sly Jiggle around, and power up all weapon systems. Also, invite our guests to the combat bridge, might as well afford them as much protection as possible.}

Jyoshish entered the combat bridge to find what must have been the entirety of the Sly Jiggle’s crew [manning] combat terminals or strapped into inertial harnesses. Jyoshish was pleased to echo that the Sly Jiggle came equipped with multiple sillyesh compatible harnesses, and strapped herself in. {What’s going on? Did those three void-ships catch up to us?}

The Captain leaned out of his sling and strobed {Well only two my dear! My worthy navigator estimates that our larger friend is still a warp jump or two behind. Although manners dictate that I wait until all invited are present before we begin festivities, these two admirers were really quite insistent, and I have deigned to begin the dance.}

However given what you already told us about humans, it would be difficult for the Terran Dominion Authority (TDA) not to project superior military forces. Any /k/ommandos out there can check my work.

If I recall correctly there are three levels or tiers of warfare. The tactical, the strategic, and theater.

On the tactical level humans appear to win hands down in space and on the ground. If a human civilian ship boasts better armor than their advanced military ships and the one cannon the Union saw outclassed much of their weaponry it is most likely going to be a one sided fight if the two parties engage in space. The worst I can imagine for the TDA Military is that their cannon fire passes through the Union ships, punching holes but not striking vital spots. This could be possible because the low gravity of Union worlds would allow for the creation of more expensive ships than earth's gravity would allow. However this minor advantage can be easily countered by using timed or delayed explosives to ensure that munitions explode after penetrating the first hull but not the second. Finally humans can see in space. The aliens of the Union can not. The best they can hope for is to "hear" our engines or the deck lights over the stars themselves. On the ground humans have the advantage as well. In addition to the factors above, which would apply to ground combat to some extent there are other advantages as well. As the war would be a defensive one for the TDA, most ground combat will take place on human worlds, which are so hostile to Union species that they are classified as "inhospitable planets" and considered uninhabitable. Even without our "freakish high gravity muscles" we can almost incapacitate a Union alien with a flick of a light switch. A normal human world's sunlight would devastate them. Let's not talk about the radiation of our normal worlds but it is implied to be dangerous to the Union.

>>27404202On The strategic level, we know nothing about the Union. However we can assume that with their awe of a human canon, the dilapidated and/or inexperienced state of their military, and the fact that their most experienced soldiers are in fact their police force indicates that the Union has almost no strategic level weapons or doctrine, having never had the need to develop it. Furthermore the Union came to nuclear power late. If I recall, their first reactor was part of an exchange from humanity. Thus the chances of them having nuclear weaponry is limited. The TDA, on the other hand at least has likely access to the nuclear weapons of the powers that preceded them and definitely has the means to build more. I can't begin to estimate the effects of a nuclear blast on the radiation and structurally weak Union. Thus so far it appears that the TDA has the advantage on the strategic level as well.

Finally we come to the theater level. Here we have no ability to accurately access the TDA's strength. We at least know that human merchants have traveled throughout Union space and knew enough about the Union to properly be able to find the Regestrat and file a colony claim accurately. The Union on the other hand doesn't even know the location of Earth, let alone anything about humans or their government. They would effectively be shooting blindly for human space and probably get lost in the galaxy. Thus the advantage, albeit a small one, goes to the TDA again.

Barring exceptional errors in my assessment or extraordinary luck or talent by the Union forces it appears that the Union is looking at a devastating loss to the Terran Dominion Authority. The tactical, strategic, and theater level advantages of the TDA make a Union defeat likely.

Thus the question arises as to why the Creator's Work Party wants the war at all. While it is likely that the Party is ignorant of the reality of war and the strengths of humans, they cannot overlook the fact that they have no idea where humanity lives in the galaxy. As such it is likely that they want to increase tensions against humanity for their political ends. It is possible that they don't even really want a war at all, but will pretend to in order to win elections.

>>27404202>>27404298Minor points of correction. Nuclear power is most likely something the Union had a long time ago, but due to their lower gravity worlds and such have lower access to materials, making their use as power generation impractical, and having to rely on impossible powerstorage as a alternative and massive energy collection and transfer.

As for space combat, LIDAR or RADAR will do just fine, as none of them need to be withing the Eyeball Mk1 range or Ear Mk1 as it were.

As for Ship combat the Union maneuverability of their ships can probably only be matched by purpose built STL gunships for humans. Even if their peak performers match somehow in this regard its still not the same thing when all of their ftl warships can pull some similar version off.

In end effect the war against humans would be a massive FTL based grid search that will be mostly conducted as a massive raid trying to get superiority around the regular transit points.

Depending on FTL this means either a effective blockade or a serious cost increase to shipping due to having to go for suboptimal routes, get escorts and increase local patrols for the destinations and pit stops.

And considering what worlds human live on why would the Union ever want to go down there?

One has mobility the other has endurance and both can be played up as needed.

The way I see it, any war would be a pointless endeavor over nothing but xenophobia. The humans have things the union wants, but those things (technology, metals) can really only be gained through trade. The union has things that humans want, (technology, super-light building materials), but again, those things can really only be gained through trade. Neither side wants, say, the other side's planets.

For nuclear power:>>27388856"High mass human worlds mean the humans gained access to fission and fusion technology long before the Union due to the abundance of heavy fissile materials on Earth."

As to RADAR and LIDAR, I discounted them due to our present day stealth technology. In all fairness I shouldn't have done that, seeing as technology for detection may have drastically advanced since then, points to you for thinking of that.

I discounted maneuverability as seeking weapons have been around for some time and while maneuverability is a major factor in battles, in combat between large ships it tends to be more beneficial for positioning than evading fire.

If the Union does lack strategic weaponry as I assumed, in order to actually attempt to fight humanity on some level they will need to land. That was why I considered land based battles as well.

{That will be sufficient. In the meantime fire the laser batteries at their craft. What of [Templar] Vallkrran?}

{Respected [Templar] Vallkrran continues to maneuver his void-ship to intercept and board [Templar-Commander].}

{Such zeal. Truly his faith in the Creator supersedes all else.} [Templar-Commander] Fyasill bit back what he intended to flash next: {Including tactical sense.} He could not fault the young [Templar] for his eagerness to engage the enemy face to face. Fyasill would be of the same mind, were he several [decades] younger. The sillyesh [Templar] glanced down at his command console and his tail twitched in surprise.

{Sister G’stex, did we score a penetrating hit on the primary command deck? The heathens’ void-ship seems to be leaking gas.}

[Templar-Commander] Fyasill could hardly believe what his vibrascreen was displaying. What had at one point appeared to be the combat bridge of the heathen’s void-ship had come detached from the main craft, revealing a secondary cockpit beneath the now absent primary one.

An enhanced render of the deck revealed that it was anything but the combat bridge. Instead, behind the hull was a massive array of batteries, the blocky structures filling all but a thin shaft in the middle of the deck, which extended from what had once appeared to be the command cockpit all the way to the opposite side. A series of coiled cables filled the shaft, running from the supposed cockpit all the way back to a small shaped object, almost too tiny for their sensors to detect.

{What in the Union?} flashed [Templar-Commander] Fyasill. The answer to his question was also his killer.

The Electro-Magnetic Field Mass Driver propelled a [5 kilogram] Projectile of incredibly rare iron forward at a tremendous rate of acceleration, one far greater than its Human designers would have ever believed possible, as the array of batteries emptied billions of giga-amps into each section of the Accelerator Coil. As the Projectile exited the Accelerator Coil, it was travelling at an astounding 5% of the speed of light. In the vacuum of space there were very few external signs to indicate the incredible potential energy stored within the Projectile. All of that changed when the Projectile passed through [Templar-Commander] Fyasill’s void-ship from stern to aft.

The Projectile was only in contact with Fyasill’s void-ship for a minuscule amount of time, mere [picoseconds], but during its brief visit, it managed to impart about a millionth of its stored energy to the void-ship, mostly in the form of heat. The titanium hull boiled away into the depths of space. Needless to say, all hands were lost.

><

AN: alright anons there was a lot of math in those above posts. I'm pretty sure about how much kinetic energy the Projectile had, but everything else is just speculation and guesstimations on my part, so don't read into the figures too much

Jyoshish’s mouth gaped open, her tongue hanging limply. Beside her, the various other guests of Captain Rerrgaaat bore similarly shocked expressions. {Surprised?} flashed Kw’mil smugly, {That was the culmination of several [years] of stored power and more than three million credits in bribes alone.}

{Was… was that a Human weapon?} flashed Raggarrz, his entire body turning a dull shade of amazement.

{Where in the Union did Vyinsaash even FIND you?!} Jyoshish strobed brightly.

{Well, that’s quite the story,} responded the Captain {And I’ll be sure to [tell] you it once we have dealt with the fellows who are attempting to board us.}

Rerrgaat flopped out of his sling and began to slither toward the elevator, followed by Kw’mil. {Raggarrz, I cordially invite you to come with in suppressing these rapscallions, what say you my good [spore-brother]?}

[Templar] Vallkraan slithered around the boarding tube, flicking his laser rifle on and off. The Sly Jiggle’s recent display only confirmed his darkest suspicions. These heathens were not acting alone to forestall the Creator’s will; they were being aided by the abominable Humans! [Templar-Commander] Fyasill had doubted his theories, and the damnable heretic [“Templar”] Cylion had even gone so far as to declare him unstable! But now he had irrefutable evidence of their sins. All he had to do was board the traitor’s void-ship and bring them back to [High Cleric] Xytomon. Soon all of the Union would know the truth of the Human plot!

{[Templar] Vallkraan, boarding lasers have almost finished slicing through the enemy’s hull. Prepare to board.} flashed the klagracht pilot into his helmet’s photophones.

[Templar] Vallkraan turned back to face his three fellow [Templars], his personal retinue of warriors, the elite of the elite. [Templar] Vallkraan flicked his laser rifle on once more. {Come brothers!} He echoed. {Let’s show these deviants that there is no escaping your sins!}

The four [Templars] barreled down the boarding tube and onto the heathens’ void-ship. Vallkraan could not help but notice that for an infidel’s void-ship, it was surprisingly clean and well vibrated. The squad moved down the corridor, halting at each intersection to check for recipients of the Creator’s Judgement. [Templar] Bzon was the first to echo the trap, amateurishly hidden in an air vent. A plasma pack, rigged to detonate when a trip wire near the floor was pulled. The [Templars] circled around Bzon as he quickly disarmed the improvised explosive. [Templar] Bzon held the plasma pack out to his brothers, twinkling {I think we may have to do penance after this mission brothers. We seem to be making battle with juveniles!}

At that moment, a laser pierced the plasma pack, causing it to detonate. Vallkraan was lifted off of his tail and crashed down several [meters] away. The [Templar] quickly jerked himself upright, his helmet filtering out the reverberations from the explosion, and briefly echoed a korok’x escaping down an opening, presumably into the maintenance tunnels. Vallkraan quickly slithered over to [Templar] Bzon, who’s right tendril had been blown completely off at midpoint. {[Brother]!} flashed Vallkraan in all the colors of concern {Shall I call for a medical team?}

Bzon waved back his superior officer with his two remaining tendrils. {No need, [Brother-Templar]} flashed Bzon as he shifted his pulse rifle to his other two tendrils, {I can still bring about the Creator’s will.}

The squad moved forward even more cautiously towards the maintenance tunnel that the korok’x escaped down. They found it altogether too small for their bulky combat armor, and resolved to move on after firing down it several dozen times. Continuing their examination of the void-ship, the four [Templars] eventually came upon what was likely the primary elevator shaft. [Templar] Jarxin reached forward to recall the elevator, when Vallkraan forestalled him. {These heathens deal in treachery and trickery [Brother]} flashed Vallkraan {I would be surprised if the elevator was still powered. And I would be for more worried if it was. Prep your climbing gear and cut open the shaft, we descend the old fashioned way.}

{Aye [Brother-Templar],} answered Jarxin as he began to lower himself down the shaft. A few moments after his [head] had disappeared from [view] they all [saw] a whining tone, growing louder and higher with each passing [second]. {By the Creato-} the three [Templars] [heard] Jarxin flash, right before the elevator smashed into the support strut above them, with Jarxin in between. The elevator doors opened with a friendly beep of light. Vallkraan turned to echo at his two remaining squadmates. {The infidels think to mock us. They believe us too craven to accept their challenge. Let’s prove them wrong.}

>>27410032that is the very deffinition of a non-factor. all else being equal 1000 of one species breads just as fast as 1000 of a mixed species. Breeding rate is proportional to population (and of course gestation period and litter size). With limits based on food and real estate. So the question of who has more people comes mostly down to who has more space. Which will be a function of how many, and how large the habbitable planets are for each speaces within their respective areas. And access to materials for building habitable space stations.

>>27410650I'm pretty sure that in the first thread of this, that someone was lamenting how the lifting of population controls has resulted in a new generation which doesn't appreciate fighting for its right to live, implying that the Union is now experiencing a population boom.

>>27410650The aliens don't have a pop cap like some RTS game just because they are allied. They probably each had a similar population as us before becoming space faring due to economic factors. Even if each had half the population as earth when they set out they would vastly outnumber humanity.

>>27410757just to clarify, She was lamenting the addition of population controls. Basically the korok'x are a female dominant species, the population controls made the ratio of males to females something more like 1:2. Prior to that females were generally considered easily disposable, to the point of remaining unnamed until they had successfully mated

and while we are at the tech point were we have enouph food to feed the planet, we are not at the techpoint were we can transport said food from the exceptionaly fertal areas to the less hospitable ones. A space fairing civilazatoin.

Also give it time, we havent hit the max that earth can sustain, and there are cultural things to population rates, many of which would go out the window when you become a space fairing race. As a rule of thumb a race that has been space faring for enouph generations (as the union and likely the humans have) will have a large enouph population that their birth rate COULD fill a new planet within a few generations via imigrants from planets already near capacity.

>>27411069And so the 1 race colonizes up all the planets it can find, and the dozen or so other races with a similar population to start with are all exploring and developing as well. You must have problems with multiplication.

>>27411109This again depends on the starting point of each (Humanity might be 200 or so years older in the space age for all we know) Although i suppose the fractured humanity idea similar to infinity with multiple polities per planet probably limiting population per real estate due to political and cultural imposed limitation. Just like population controls limit the Korokx, and probably the seven species also have similar problems mostly heavily interested in keeping one another in check considering the Homeworld centric outlook.

but anyway, the union species are competeing with each other, they are going after the same planet types. there is no way to know which set has more habitable planets available to them in this setting. Population growth (outside of social restrictions) is exponential up to its limiters, limiters being food and space. Due to how exponential growth works it is likely that any large space fairing society will be pushing up near those limiters. because the union races look for the same (or very similar) things, they share their limiters. The question ends up as who has the larger limiters, not who has more species.

>>27411428Time is a factor, I already said population does not suddenly fill up all available land.There is honestly no way the humans would have a comparable population to the union.

For example, if there was a city on one continent, and 12 united cities of similar on another continent, both continents with abundant resources and space (the galaxy is a big place), who is going to have the bigger population by the end of a century or two?

>>27411428As a fairly easy example of what I am talking about, take two peaces of paper, on one draw a cluster of 8 dots, on the other draw a single dot. Now draw a circle around each dot. Now draw a bigger circle, continue to do so, the circles of the cluster will all be over lapping each other untill they are basicly just one big circle. The single dot will allso have just one big circle, and it will be VERY close to the size of the circle made from the cluster.

>>27411512The union races are not going to explore areas that thier allies already have. Start up a game of civilization or a similar sort.Take your civilization on half of a very spacious map, and make a dozen other civilizations with an alliance on the other half and guaranteed they will outnumber you.

>>27411551speed of travel, availability of worlds (the galaxy IS big, but its an ocean, not a content, you are looking for islands, specific types of islands, which are not seeded equaly), the union races were not united untill recently, you are assuming an equal starting time (which is unknown), and this particular game of civ is already enouph turns in that both sides would have filled up their respective sets of islands. And thats the point.

>>27411714Except the union would not stop halfway, they would grow faster and they would keep growing as much as they could. I'm not saying they have an exact 12 to 1 advantage, but there is no logical way they humans would have an equal population unless they were far more ancient. And anyone who thinks they would probably struggles with basic multiplication.

I'm pretty sure that given enough time, one pair of rabbits will outcompete, was it eight pairs? Eight pairs of turtles. And that is with the turtleprogeny being able to pair up with any other turtleprogeny, instead of sluggy turtles sticking with sluggy turtles, and turtles with crab claws sticking with turtles with crab claws, and maned with maned.

Of course, I do not know how humans and blind slugs compare, on any point. Litter rate, death rate, gestation, cooldown, time started, all that stuff. But you see what I mean, right?